The court of the chest

The Ling Lan Mi Dian Lun (靈蘭秘典論) chapter of the Suwen answers a question from the Yellow Emperor about the hierarchy of the twelve organs, and it does so in the language of administration: “心者，君主之官也，神明出焉”, the Heart is the sovereign, and from it comes the clarity of the spirit. The Lung is the prime minister, who regulates; the Liver, the general, who draws up the plans; the Gallbladder, the judge, who decides. “膻中者，臣使之官，喜樂出焉”, the center of the chest is the envoy minister, from whom joy and pleasure come. The Triple Energizer is the official who opens the waterways, and the Bladder, the district magistrate, who stores the fluids.

The conclusion is political: “凡此十二官者，不得相失也。故主明則下安”. None of the twelve may neglect its function; if the lord is lucid, those below live in peace, and if not, all twelve are in danger. The chapter's title points to the place where, at the end of the text, the Emperor stores the teaching: “藏靈蘭之室”, the chamber of the orchids.

The Ren Mai runs down the sternum through a series of names drawn from courtly architecture. From bottom to top: CV14, Juque, the great tower, the entrance pavilion of a palace; CV16, Zhongting, the central courtyard; CV17, Danzhong, the center of the chest, the envoy minister of the Suwen; CV18, Yutang, the jade hall; CV19, Zigong, the Purple Palace; CV20, Huagai, the imperial canopy; and CV21, Xuanji, the Celestial Chariot. The Jiayi Jing links them with measurements: Huagai is one cun below Xuanji, Zigong is one cun and six fen below Huagai, and Yutang is the same distance again below that.

No ancient text explains the series as a deliberate plan, but its coherence is hard to ignore. And it has an astronomical second layer: the Purple Palace is the residence of the sovereign of heaven, the canopy is the awning that covers him, and the Chariot turns around him, as told on the page about the heavens in the body.

Danzhong plays more than one role in the canon. The Hai Lun chapter of the Lingshu makes it the sea of qi: “膻中者，為氣之海”. The Jiayi Jing, describing the trunk as the wall of a city, calls it “心主之中宮”, the inner palace of the lord of the Heart. And the Suwen, as we have seen, names it the minister.

The idea of the minister who protects the sovereign appears in another passage. The Heart, says the Jiayi Jing, is so firm that it admits no evil, and “諸邪之在於心者，皆在心之包絡”, the evils that reach the Heart stay in its envelope. Hence the role of the Pericardium channel, whose fifth point, PC5, Jianshi, carries the 使 of the envoy minister, and whose first point, PC1, lies on the chest, a step from the court.

Two cun from the midline, the Kidney channel climbs in parallel with names that accompany the court: KI22, Bulang, the corridor; KI23, the Spirit Seal; KI24, the Spirit Ruins; KI25, the Spirit Storehouse, facing the Purple Palace; KI26, Yuzhong; and KI27, Shufu, the mansion of the Shu, beneath the clavicle. Behind, on the back, BL44, the spirit hall, sits at the level of the Heart Shu.

One of the lost chapters of the Suwen, the Ci Fa Lun, takes up the list of the twelve officials again and adds to each one where to needle: “心者，君主之官，神明出焉，可刺手少陰之源”, the Heart, the sovereign, is treated at the Yuan point of the hand Shaoyin, and so on with all the rest. It is a late text, but it shows how the court of the organs was read: as a map that the needle could travel.